Fermín Moreno Cerezo, Susana Corrales Rocafort, Paz Sevilla Sierra
Nov 14, 2001
Citations
0
Influential Citations
28
Citations
Journal
Helvetica Chimica Acta
Abstract
In this work, we examined in depth the photophysical behavior of the probes acrylodan (1-[6-(dimethylamino)naphthalen-2-yl]prop-2-en-1-one), ANS (8-anilinonaphthalene-1-sulfonate), and prodan (1-[6-(dimethylamino)naphthalen-2-yl]propan-1-one) in several pure solvents and aqueous mixtures of MeOH, i-PrOH, EtOH, and 2,2,2-trifluoroethanol between 0 – 90% (v/v). Although these probes have been widely used to study biological systems, the properties that govern their max emission remain somewhat obscure. These alcohols are soluble in all proportions in H2O, and are frequently used in peptide and protein studies as denaturing agents or because of their ability to substantially increase secondary structure or alter the folding-unfolding kinetics of proteins. The aim here was to rationalize the interpretation of max emission of these probes in terms of specific and general effects of the solvent. To this end, we used the mixture parameters SA (solvent acidity), SB (solvent basicity), and SPP (solvent polarity/polarizability). The results suggest that it is incorrect to categorize these compounds purely as probes of polarity, when using these solvents.